A grinder needs to be dialed in for the particular machine with extreme precision, for one. Grocery store grinders are often out of calibration and cannot grind fine enough, even though they say "Turkish." But the biggest reason of all is that ground coffee goes stale after fifteen minutes. You need to grind immediataly before your shot.

The leak is worrisome, but probably fixable. I could continue to observe it and listen for any sounds during brewing and when heating up. Does the machine stay on all day? When you turn it on, do you crack the steam knob slightly a few minutes after turning it on?

Yes I do crack the steam open after 10 of heating and the water issue is concerning since I dont know were its coming from ...you think it could be that its because I leave the water tank with water after I shut the machine off and the water is left to flow through

This morning I checked the counter and everything was dry but when I took the drip tray off the re was water in the side pockets that are hollow..

I am not sure what the hollows you are talking about, can you take a photo of the area you mean? The only thing in the drip tray I can think of is it could be the steam wand dripping. Put something under the steam wand and see if it catches any drips. Other than letting it get too full I can't think of what would cause water from the drip tray area.

There are a finite number of places that your machine could be leaking. The easiest thing to do is, as you suggest, take off the outer casing, power it up and watch for leaks. It's that simple. Turn on the steam switch too as it will increase the static pressure in the boiler and pretty quickly show you any leaks. The usual places to look are the water supply line from the pump to the boiler (or PSTAT or wherever it goes on your machine), plus all boiler connections: steam valve, PSTAT/OPV, group head (between group head and boiler), 3-way solenoid. It's very common to have to replace seals on these machines. My Gaggia is built very well, with the exception of all the silly o-rings it uses in compression applications... they are guaranteed to fail at some point. Good luck.

Helen, he means the little channels on the outer edges of the lower case when you take the drip tray off. There's a flat area where the drip tray sits, and then on either side there's those high walled grooves that are a total pain to clean out. It basically is where water settles if there's a general leak inside the case.

SMC, take off your top case and maybe snap some photos with your phone so we can get a better idea of what's going on.

the droplets are coming from this back right corner. im trying to upload pics but its kind of frustrating also i have been pressed for time,cracking the steam wand while observing will be agood idea . maybe im a expecting too much but the shots also seem alittle watery.

hi markarian have you ever had any issues with seemingly watery espresso from the oscar. i just got the hario mini and still playing with the grind adjustments on one i choked the machine just to start from the beginning and on another it came out pretty good with nice crema. maybe i should tamp light with quite a fine a grind.

You're going to find you need to do a lot of experimentation with your grind and tamp in order to get it just right. And once you get it just right, your beans will suddenly be too old. It's a never-ending dance of finesse, fussing, and yelling other words that begin with the letter F. What kind of tamper are you using? Are you using the stock Nuova Simonelli baskets?

Symbols: = New Posts since your last visit = No New Posts since last visit = Newest post

Forum Rules:No profanity, illegal acts or personal attacks will be tolerated in these discussion boards.No commercial posting of any nature will be tolerated; only private sales by private individuals, in the "Buy and Sell" forum.No SEO style postings will be tolerated. SEO related posts will result in immediate ban from CoffeeGeek.No cross posting allowed - do not post your topic to more than one forum, nor repost a topic to the same forum.Who Can Read The Forum? Anyone can read posts in these discussion boards.Who Can Post New Topics? Any registered CoffeeGeek member can post new topics.Who Can Post Replies? Any registered CoffeeGeek member can post replies.Can Photos be posted? Anyone can post photos in their new topics or replies.Who can change or delete posts? Any CoffeeGeek member can edit their own posts. Only moderators can delete posts.Probationary Period: If you are a new signup for CoffeeGeek, you cannot promote, endorse, criticise or otherwise post an unsolicited endorsement for any company, product or service in your first five postings.